Rust & Cargo

A pre-requisite for compiling smart contracts is to install a stable Rust version and cargo.

curl https://sh.rustup.rs -sSf | sh

CLI tool

Pop

Use the Pop CLI for ink! smart contract development with the greatest developer experience.

Via Homebrew:

brew install r0gue-io/pop-cli/pop

Or Source:

cargo install --force --locked pop-cli

Then set up your environment:

pop install

cargo-contract

Install cargo-contract, a CLI tool for setting up and managing smart contracts written with ink!. To install cargo-contract, run the following command in your terminal:

rustup component add rust-src
cargo install --force --locked --version 6.0.0-beta.1 cargo-contract 

In addition to Rust, installation requires a C++ compiler that supports C++17. Modern releases of gcc and clang, as well as Visual Studio 2019+ should work.

tip

Looking to run the ink! linter locally? Follow the steps in the linter setup guide.

ink-node

For Pop CLI users, Pop automatically manages the local node for you.

For cargo-contract users, the ink-node is a simple Polkadot SDK blockchain with smart contract functionality. It's a comfortable option for local development and testing.

There are two ways of installing the node:

(1) Download the Binary

Go to the ink-node releases page. Under Assets of the latest release, download the appropriate binary for your platform:

• Linux (ARM64): ink-node-linux-arm64.tar.gz
• Linux (x86): ink-node-linux.tar.gz
• macOS: ink-node-mac-universal.tar.gz

Make the binary executable:

chmod +x ./ink-node

For macOS users: When you first try to run ink-node, macOS may show a security warning.

To allow the binary to run:

1. Click the question mark (?) icon at the right top corner of the warning.
2. Follow the Apple instructions that appear.
3. Try running ink-node again and click "Open Anyway" when prompted.

To confirm that ink-node is working correctly, run:

./ink-node --version

If you see version information, your installation is successful!

(2) Build it yourself

Alternatively, you can build the node by yourself. This can take a while though!

The build instructions and pre-requisites can be found here.

IDE/Editor support

For VS Code users, we recommend using the ink! analyzer extension (alongside rust-analyzer) for the best editor experience.

For other IDEs/editors with LSP (Language Server Protocol) support (e.g. Vim/Neovim, Emacs, Helix, Zed e.t.c), ink! analyzer provides prebuilt language server binaries for Windows, Linux and macOS.